Arion for 3ds Max - The next generation engine

Arion's GPU+CPU performance and physically-based quality unleashed right into 3ds Max? Using the native MAX UI? Being able to render still frames or animations right into the MAX framebuffer? Without the need to export any files to render externally? With fully animatable and scriptable properties?

Yes. That is what Arion for 3ds Max brings.

Arion for 3ds Max tears down the obstacles that were common to previous unbiased renderers in terms of workflow. It brings the opportunity to work naturally and comfortably inside 3ds Max, and get the most cutting-edge quality and performance without changing your workflow a single bit.

All of Arion and more embedded in 3ds Max

With Arion for 3ds Max it is no longer required to export the scene data to a file, to use a stand-alone renderer, or to go back to the host app to make changes. Arion for 3ds Max exists inside 3ds Max, and renders right into the 3ds Max framebuffer. Just by hitting the render button, Arion will turn the scene into a physically-based digital photography.

Hair and Fur rendering

One of the highlights of the Arion v3 Core engine is the brand new support for hair primitives.

Arion for 3ds Max v3.0.0 supports hair in different ways. For example, the hair in this scene was generated with ephere’s Ornatrix plug-in, and then rendered in Arion.

Arion’s hair is extremely efficient, but it is also very high-quality. Our hair strands are not fake billboards or camera-oriented ribbons; they are actual tubular volumes.

Another remarkable property of our hair system is that it relies on the same BSDF that is used to model every other material in the Arion Core. This allows for great flexibility, and complex effects such as SSS, S5 and coatings are supported seamlessly.

Last, but not least, Arion’s hair system supports animation and motion blur.

Arion fur modifier

Arion v3.0.0 features a new modifier capable of taking an existing mesh and adding fur on top of it, based on Arion hair/fur system.

This new modifier is highly controllable and allows the user to set all sort of parameters such as the gravity pull, the flexibility of the fur fibers, their randomization, and density, … The real-time preview of the modifier reacts to all these parameters in the 3ds Max viewport.

With the Arion Fur modifier it is possible to easily create highly realistic and complex elements such as fields of grass, towels, or furry carpets.

Arion scatter modifier

Arion for 3ds Max exposes Arion's material properties through a new type of node inside the 3ds Max Material Editor. These properties use the native MAX UI, can be scripted through MAXScript, and can be animated naturally, including colors, maps, image sequences, ...

The Arion Renderer material node is fully compatible with both the Slate Editor and the Classic Material Editor view.

Additionally, Arion for 3ds Max is capable of interpreting basic native 3ds Max materials automatically. A script is also included to pre-translate the materials in existing scenes to Arion 2.0.

Motion blur

Real motion blur is one of the features that make an engine deserve to be called production-ready. Efficient motion blur is simply mandatory for animation rendering.

Arion for 3ds Max supports all types of motion: pivot-based, geometry deformation, camera motion, and also all of them combined for full-scene motion blur.

Motion blur in Arion for 3ds Max is physically-correct and happens automatically, taking into account the camera shutter and the motion speed of the entities in the scene. It does not happen as a fake post-process effect, and it does not require multiple pass renders; it simply happens as naturally as DoF does.

Arion allows the user to set a number of sub-frames per entity to be able to balance the smoothness of motion curvature vs. the memory usage and rendering speed.

Displacements

Sometimes it is required to add extra details to a surface that bump or normal mapping are unable to reproduce accurately. Then it is crucial for a production-proven render engine to support render-time micro-polygon displacement mapping (MPDM).

Arion's approach to displacement mapping is very precise, it supports real curvature without cracking and works on the CPU and the GPU. Remarkably, it is evaluated in render-time, requiring no extra warm-up time or memory.

Arion's displacement mapping allows for mid-point adjustment to comply with displacement maps generated by the most popular digital sculpting packages.

Instancing

with support for Particle Flow and point clouds

Memory conservation is one of the most important aspects in production rendering, cost-efficiency and render-farm management. This is why geometry instancing is a keystone in modern render engines these days.

The state-of-the-art implementation of geometry instancing in Arion 2.0 runs at an incredible speed on both the CPU and the GPU. Actually, in some cases instancing can be almost as fast as if there was no instancing at all, even with full global illumination. Remarkably, the cost in memory of each new instance is nearly zero.

Arion for 3ds Max supports 3ds Max native instanced copies and also PFlow particle systems. Support for PFlow allows not only for animatable particle systems, but also for convenient scattering of instances for vegetation or crowds.

Render passes

Arion's render passes have been improved and extended in Arion 2.0, giving more flexibility for shot compositing.

For example, we have added the new Roughness and Fresnel channels, which make it possible to tweak reflections in post-production.

Now it is also possible to define shadow catcher materials to render matte/shadow channels to better embed rendered objects into real-life footage or background photographs.

ActiveShade support

Once open, the ActiveShade window will catch up any changes made by the user in the scene, providing a view with final quality.

This feature greatly reduces the setup time of cameras and materials, suppressing the need for lengthy test renders.

Remarkably, and unlike other render engines, Arion's ActiveShade and Production renderers are the same renderer. This is, our ActiveShade preview does not output an approximation to the final render, but the actual render in final quality. In fact, the Arion ActiveShade window uses the Arion Production renderer, set to listen for incremental changes in the scene.

Native material editor

Arion for 3ds Max exposes Arion's material properties through a new type of node inside the 3ds Max Material Editor. These properties use the native MAX UI, can be scripted through MAXScript, and can be animated naturally, including colors, maps, image sequences, ...

The Arion Renderer material node is fully compatible with both the Slate Editor and the Classic Material Editor view.

Additionally, Arion for 3ds Max is capable of interpreting basic native 3ds Max materials automatically. A script is also included to pre-translate the materials in existing scenes to Arion 2.0.

Unlimited network rendering

Arion for 3ds Max plug-in is sold with an UNLIMITED number of network rendering slaves to be used through Backburner®.

When the schedule is tight and adding computers to the network is the only solution, there's no need to worry about any licensing issues. Arion for 3ds Max will simply feed all the rendering nodes from a single master license.

Note that unlimited network rendering is exclusive to Arion for 3ds Max and is not available in the stand-alone version of Arion.